alrighty well im working on a zora armor link from zelda twilight princess. i need a cheap way to make the scale mail that he wears. i saw how much it costs for real metal scales but that is way out of my budget at the moment. so any ideas? i just need them to not be able to like rip off or be utterly destroyed. plus if you know a way to make it go faster let me know if not its alright im not to worried bout time.

thanks
Zakku from W.F.P.

ubercaledor

11-21-2010, 07:39 PM

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Mw3kCyNi78M/S7XyUsX-IDI/AAAAAAAAAMs/DYOHIiUGeYg/s1600/zora+armour+link.jpg
Just linking a reference pic (it makes it easier to visualise and help you). Is this what you wanted?

best (simple and cheap) way of making that would probably be craft foam. Cut out the scales to a template, hot-glue to a strip of heavy fabric, coat in PVA glue to seal and then paint. After that, layer them as ABA or ABC (ABA: each scale sits precisely between the two scales on top, ABC: each scale is shifted 1/3 the width of a scale compared to the one above so that each third row is aligned). ABA appears closest to the ref, but ABC tends to give you a nice thick-looking scale armour.

If you allow a little bit of 'give' in the way of stretchiness at the sides of the costume you shouldn't have to worry about them all tearing off. Otherwise, hot glue can make for repairs on-the-go.

Otherwise, if you wanted to go the extra mile and go for something more rigid, plastic scales might be nice. These can also be hinged at the corners rather than just laid in a strip to give the scales flare when moved underneath. It is a lot more tricky to get right though.

Viveeh

11-23-2010, 07:17 AM

I've heard about someone having made the scales from plastic spoons. They just cut the end parts off and glued them onto a base fabric. I don't know how much those spoons cost but they shouldn't be too expensive, and I think they could look really good.

ubercaledor

11-23-2010, 07:50 PM

I think if you look hard enough you can get metalic-look plastic spoons, I'd suspect something like 30 for $2-5 would be a good deal. You'd likely need 300+ a full shirt (as a rough guess